English Dialects From The Eighth Century To The Present Day Part 3

CHAPTER V

NORTHUMBRIAN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

The subject of the last chapter was one of great importance. When it is once understood that, down to 1400 or a little later, the men of the Scottish Lowlands and the men of the northern part of England spoke not only the same language, but the same dialect of that language, it becomes easy to explain what happened afterwards.

There was, nevertheless, one profound difference between the circ.u.mstances of the language spoken to the north of the Tweed and that spoken to the south of it. In Scotland, the Northumbrian dialect was spoken by all but the Celts, without much variety; the minor differences need not be here considered. And this dialect, called Inglis (as we have seen) by the Lowlanders themselves, had no rival, as the difference between it and the Erse or Gaelic was obvious and immutable.

To the South of the Tweed, the case was different. England already possessed three dialects at least, viz. Northumbrian, Mercian, and Saxon, i.e. Northern, Midland, and Southern; besides which, Midland had at the least two main varieties, viz. Eastern and Western.

Between all these there was a long contention for supremacy. In very early days, the Northern took the lead, but its literature was practically destroyed by the Danes, and it never afterwards attained to anything higher than a second place. From the time of Alfred, the standard language of literature was the Southern, and it kept the lead till long after the Conquest, well down to 1200 and even later, as will be explained hereafter. But the Midland dialect, which is not without witness to its value in the ninth century, began in the thirteenth to a.s.sume an important position, which in the fourteenth became dominant and supreme, exalted as it was by the genius of Chaucer. Its use was really founded on practical convenience. It was intermediate between the other two, and could be more or less comprehended both by the Northerner and the Southerner, though these could hardly understand each other. The result was, naturally, that whilst the Northumbrian to the north of the Tweed was practically supreme, the Northumbrian to the south of it soon lost its position as a literary medium. It thus becomes clear that we must, during the fifteenth century, treat the Northumbrian of England and that of Scotland separately. Let us first investigate its position in England.

But before this can be appreciated, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that the literature of the fifteenth century, in nearly all the text-books that treat of the subject, has been most unjustly underrated. The critics, nearly all with one accord, repeat the remark that it is a "barren" period, with nothing admirable about it, at any rate in England; that it shows us the works of Hoccleve and Lydgate near the beginning, _The Flower and the Leaf_ near the middle (about 1460), and the ballad of _The Nut-brown Maid_ at the end of it, and nothing else that is remarkable. In other words, they neglect its most important characteristic, that it was the chief period of the lengthy popular romances and of the popular plays out of which the great dramas of the succeeding century took their rise. To which it deserves to be added that it contains many short poems of a fugitive character, whilst a vast number of very popular ballads were in constant vogue, sometimes handed down without much change by a faithful tradition, but more frequently varied by the fancy of the more competent among the numerous wandering minstrels. To omit from the fifteenth century nearly all account of its romances and plays and ballads is like omitting the part of Hamlet the Dane from Shakespeare's greatest tragedy.

The pa.s.sion for long romances or romantic poems had already arisen in the fourteenth century, and, to some extent, in the thirteenth. Even just before 1300, we meet with the lays of _Havelok_ and _Horn_. In the fourteenth century, it is sufficient to mention the romances of _Sir Guy of Warwick_ (the earlier version), _Sir Bevis of Hamtoun_, and _Libeaus Desconus_, all mentioned by Chaucer; _Sir Launfal_, _The Seven Sages_ (earlier version, as edited by Weber); _Lai le Freine_, _Richard Coer de Lion_, _Amis and Amiloun_, _The King of Tars_, _William of Palerne_, _Joseph of Arimathea_ (a fragment), _Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight_, _Alisaunder of Macedoine_ and _Alexander and Dindimus_ (two fragments of one very long poem), _Sir Ferumbras_, and _Sir Isumbras_. The spirited romance generally known as the alliterative _Morte Arthure_ must also belong here, though the MS. itself is of later date.

The series was actively continued during the fifteenth century, when we find, besides others, the romances of _Iwain and Gawain_, _Sir Percival_, and _Sir Cleges_; _The Sowdon_ (Sultan) _of Babylon_; _The Aunturs_ (Adventures) _of Arthur_, _Sir Amadas_, _The Avowing of Arthur_, and _The Life of Ipomidoun_; _The Wars of Alexander_, _The Seven Sages_ (later version, edited by Wright); _Torrent of Portugal_, _Sir Gowther_, _Sir Degrevant_, _Sir Eglamour_, _Le Bone Florence of Rome_, and _Partonope of Blois_; the prose version of _Merlin_, the later version of _Sir Guy of Warwick_, and the verse Romance, of immense length, of _The Holy Grail_; _Emare_, _The Erl of Tolous_, and _The Squire of Low Degree_. Towards the end of the century, when the printing-press was already at work, we find Caxton greatly busying himself to continue the list. Not only did he give us the whole of Sir Thomas Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_, "enprynted and fynysshed in thabbey Westmestre the last day of Iuyl, the yere of our lord MCCCCLx.x.xV"; but he actually translated several romances into very good English prose on his own account, viz. _G.o.defroy of Boloyne_ (1481), _Charles the Grete_ (1485), _The Knight Paris and the fair Vyene_ (1485), _Blanchardyn and Eglantine_ (about 1489), and _The Four Sons of Aymon_ (about 1490). We must further put to the credit of the fifteenth century the remarkable English version of the _Gesta Romanorum_, and many more versions by Caxton, such as _The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_, _The Life of Jason_, _Eneydos_ (which is Virgil's _aeneid_ in the form of a prose romance), _The Golden Legend_ or Lives of Saints, and _Reynard the Fox_. When all these works are considered, the fifteenth century emerges with considerable credit.

It remains to look at some of the above-named romances a little more closely, in order to see if any of them are in the dialect of Northern England. Some of them are written by scribes belonging to other parts, but there seems to be little doubt that the following were in that dialect originally, viz. (1) _Iwain and Gawain_, printed in Ritson's _Ancient Metrical Romances_, and belonging to the very beginning of the century, extant in the same MS. as that which contains Minot's _Poems_: (2) _The Wars of Alexander_ (Early English Text Society, 1886), edited by myself; see the Preface, pp. xv, xix, for proofs that it was originally written in a pure Northumbrian dialect, which the better of the two MSS. very fairly preserves. Others exhibit strong traces of a Northern dialect, such as _The Aunturs of Arthur_, _Sir Amadas_, and _The Avowing of Arthur_, but they may be in a West Midland dialect, not far removed from the North. In the preface to _The Sege of Melayne_ (Milan) _and Roland and Otuel_, edited for the Early English Text Society by S.J. Herrtage, it is suggested that both these poems were by the author of _Sir Percival_, and that all three were originally in the dialect of the North of England.

_Iwain and Gawain_ and _The Wars of Alexander_ belong to quite the beginning of the fifteenth century, and they appear to be among the latest examples of the literary use of dialect in the North of England considered as a vehicle for romances; but we must not forget the "miracle plays," and in particular _The Towneley Mysteries_ or plays acted at or near Wakefield in Yorks.h.i.+re, and _The York Plays_, lately edited by Miss Toulmin Smith. Examples of Southern English likewise come to an end about the same time; it is most remarkable how very soon, after the death of Chaucer, the Midland dialect not only a.s.sumed a leading position, but enjoyed that proud position almost alone. The rapid loss of numerous inflexions, soon after 1400, made that dialect, which was already in possession of such important centres as London, Oxford, and Cambridge, much easier to learn, and brought its grammar much nearer to that in use in the North. It even compromised, as it were, with that dialect by accepting from it the general use of such important words as _they_, _their_, _them_, the plural verb _are_, and the preposition _till_. There can be little doubt that one of the causes of the cessation of varying forms of words in literary use was the civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses, which must for a brief period have been hostile to all literary activity; and very shortly afterwards the printing-presses of London all combined to recognise, in general, one dialect only.

Hence it came about, by a natural but somewhat rapid process, that the only dialect which remained unaffected by the triumph of the Midland variety was that portion of the Northern dialect which still held its own in Scotland, where it was spoken by subjects of another king. As far as literature was concerned, only two dialects were available, the Northumbrian of Scotland and the East Midland in England. It is obvious that the readiest way of distinguis.h.i.+ng between the two is to call the one "Scottish" and the other "English," ignoring accuracy for the sake of practical convenience. This is precisely what happened in course of time, and the new nomenclature would have done no harm if the study of Middle English had been at all general. But such was not the case, and the history of our literature was so much neglected that even those who should have been well informed knew no better than others. The chief modern example is the well-known case of that most important and valuable book ent.i.tled _An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, by John Jamieson, D.D., first published in Edinburgh in 1808. There is no great harm in the t.i.tle, if for "Language" we read "Dialect"; but this great and monumental work was unluckily preceded by a "Dissertation on the Origin of the Scottish Language," in which wholly mistaken and wrongheaded views are supported with great ingenuity and much show of learning. In the admirable new edition of "Jamieson" by Longmuir and Donaldson, published at Paisley in 1879, this matter is set right. They quite rightly reprint this "Dissertation," which affords valuable testimony as to the study of English in 1808, but accompany it with most judicious remarks, which are well worthy of full repet.i.tion.

"That once famous Dissertation can now be considered only a notable feat of literary card-building; more remarkable for the skill and ingenuity of its construction than for its architectural correctness, strength and durability, or practical usefulness. That the language of the Scottish Lowlands is in all important particulars the same as that of the northern counties of England, will be evident to any unbia.s.sed reader who takes the trouble to compare the Scottish Dictionary with the Glossaries of Brockett, Atkinson, and Peac.o.c.k.

And the similarity is attested in another way by the simple but important fact, that regarding some of our Northern Metrical Romances it is still disputed whether they were composed to the north or the south of the Tweed.... And to this conclusion all competent scholars have given their consent."

For those who really understand the situation there is no harm in accepting the distinction between "Scottish" and "English," as explained above. Hence it is that the name of "Middle Scots" has been suggested for "the literary language of Scotland written between the latter half of the fifteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth." Most of this literature is highly interesting, at any rate much more so than the "English" literature of the same period, as has been repeatedly remarked. Indeed, this is so well known that special examples are needless; I content myself with referring to the _Specimens of Middle Scots_, by G. Gregory Smith, Edinburgh and London, 1902. These specimens include extracts from such famous authors as Henryson, Dunbar, Gawain (or Gavin) Douglas, Sir David Lyndesay, John Knox, and George Buchanan. Perhaps it is well to add that "Scottis"

or "Scots" is the Northern form of "Scottish" or "Scotch"; just as "Inglis" is the Northern form of "English."

"Middle Scots" implies both "Old Scots" and "Modern Scots." "Old Scots" is, of course, the same thing as Northumbrian or Northern English of the Middle English Period, which may be roughly dated as extant from 1300 to 1400 or 1450. "Modern Scots" is the dialect (when they employ dialect) ill.u.s.trated by Allan Ramsay, Alexander Ross, Robert Tannahill, John Galt, James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and very many others.

I conclude this chapter with a characteristic example of Middle Scots.

The following well-known pa.s.sage is from the conclusion to Dunbar's _Golden Targe_.

And as I did awake of my sweving{1}, The ioyfull birdis merily did syng For myrth of Phebus tendir bemes schene{2}; Swete war the vapouris, soft the morowing{3}, Halesum the vale, depaynt wyth flouris ying{4}; The air attemperit, sobir, and amene{5}; In quhite and rede was all the feld besene{6} Throu Naturis n.o.bil fresch anamalyng{7}, In mirthfull May, of eviry moneth Quene.

O reverend Chaucere, rose of rethoris{8} all, As in oure tong ane flour{9} imperiall, That raise{10} in Britane evir, quho redis rycht, Thou beris of makaris{11} the tryumph riall; Thy fresch anamalit termes celicall{12} This mater coud illumynit have full brycht; Was thou noucht of oure Inglisch all the lycht, Surmounting eviry tong terrestriall Als fer as Mayis morow dois mydnycht?

O morall Gower, and Ludgate laureate, Your sugurit lippis and tongis aureate{13} Bene to oure eris cause of grete delyte; Your angel mouthis most mellifluate{14} Oure rude langage has clere illumynate, And faire our-gilt{15} oure speche, that imperfte Stude, or{16} your goldyn pennis schupe{17} to wryte; This ile before was bare, and desolate Of rethorike, or l.u.s.ty{18} fresch endyte{19}.

{Footnotes: 1: _dream_ 2: _bright_ 3: _morn_ 4: _young_ 5: _pleasant_ 6: _arrayed_ 7: _enamelling_ 8: _orators_ 9: _flower_ 10: _didst rise_ 11: _poets_ 12: _heavenly_ 13: _golden_ 14: _honeyed_ 15: _overgilt_ 16: _ere_ 17: _undertook_ 18: _pleasant_ 19: _composition_}

CHAPTER VI

THE SOUTHERN DIALECT

We have seen that the earliest dialect to a.s.sume literary supremacy was the Northern, and that at a very early date, namely, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; but its early doc.u.ments have nearly all perished. If, with the exception of one short fragment, any of Caedmon's poems have survived, they only exist in Southern versions of a much later date.

The chief fosterer of our rather extensive Wess.e.x (or Southern) literature, commonly called Anglo-Saxon, was the great Alfred, born at Wantage in Berks.h.i.+re, to the south of the Thames. We may roughly define the limits of the Old Southern dialect by saying that it formerly included all the counties to the south of the Thames and to the west and south-west of Berks.h.i.+re, including Wilts.h.i.+re, Dorsets.h.i.+re, Somersets.h.i.+re, and Devons.h.i.+re, but excluding Cornwall, in which the Cornish dialect of Celtic prevailed. It was at Athelney in Somersets.h.i.+re, near the junction of the rivers Tone and Parrett, that Alfred, in the memorable year 878, when his dominions were reduced to a precarious sway over two or three counties, established his famous stronghold; from which he issued to inflict upon the foes of the future British empire a crus.h.i.+ng and decisive defeat. And it was near Athelney, in the year 1693, that the ornament of gold and enamel was found, with its famous legend--aeLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN--"aelfred commanded (men) to make me."

From his date to the Norman Conquest, the MSS. in the Anglo-Saxon or Southern dialect are fairly numerous, and it is mainly to them that we owe our knowledge of the grammar, the metre, and the p.r.o.nunciation of the older forms of English. Sweet's _Anglo-Saxon Primer_ will enable any one to begin the study of this dialect, and to learn something valuable about it in the course of a month or two.

The famous _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, beginning with a note concerning the year 1, when Augustus was emperor of Rome, not only continues our history down to the Conquest, but for nearly a century beyond it, to the year 1154. The language of the latter part, as extant in the (Midland) Laud MS., belongs to the twelfth century, and shows considerable changes in the spelling and grammar as compared with the Parker MS., which (not counting in a few later entries) ends with the year 1001.

After the Conquest, the Southern dialect continued to be the literary language, and we have several examples of it. Extracts from some of the chief works are given in Part I of Morris's _Specimens of Early English_. They are selected from the following: (1) _Old English Homilies_, 1150-1200, as printed for the Early English Text Society, and edited by Dr Morris, 1867-8. (2) _Old English Homilies, Second Series_, before 1200, ed. Morris (E.E.T.S.), 1873. (3) _The Brut_, being a versified chronicle of the legendary history of Britain, compiled by Layamon, a Worcesters.h.i.+re priest, and extending to 32,240 (short) lines; in two versions, the date of the earlier being about 1205. (4) _A Life of St Juliana_, in two versions, about 1210; ed.

c.o.c.kayne and Brock (E.E.T.S.), 1872. (5) _The Ancren Riwle_, or Rule of anchorite nuns (Camden Society), ed. Morton, 1853; the date of composition is about 1210. (6) _The Proverbs of Alfred_, about 1250; printed in Dr Morris's _Old English Miscellany_ (E.E.T.S.), 1872.

A later edition, by myself, was printed at Oxford in 1907. (7) A poem by Nicholas de Guildford, ent.i.tled _The Owl and the Nightingale_, about 1250; ed. Rev. J. Stevenson, 1838; ed. T. Wright, 1843; ed. F.H.

Stratmann, of Krefeld, 1868. (8) A curious poem of nearly 400 long lines, usually known as _A Moral Ode_, which seems to have been originally written at Christchurch, Hamps.h.i.+re, and frequently printed; one version is in Morris's _Old English Homilies_, and another in the Second Series of the same. (9) _The Romance of King Horn_; before 1300, here printed in full.

Just at the very end of the century we meet with two Southern poems of vast length. _The Metrical Chronicle_ of Robert of Gloucester, comprising the History of Britain from the Siege of Troy to the year 1272, the date of the accession of Edward I, and written in the dialect of Gloucester, was completed in 1298. It must seem strange to many to find that our history is thus connected with the Siege of Troy; but it must be remembered that our old histories, including Layamon's poem of _The Brut_ mentioned above, usually included the fabulous history of very early Britain as narrated by Geoffrey of Monmouth; and it is useful to remember that we owe to this circ.u.mstance such important works as Shakespeare's _King Lear_ and _Cymbeline_, as well as the old play of _Locrine_, once attributed to Shakespeare. According to Robert's version of Geoffrey's story, Britain was originally called Brutain, after Brut or Brutus, the son of aeneas. Locrin was the eldest son of Brutus and his wife Innogen, and defeated Humber, king of Hungary, in a great battle; after which Humber was drowned in the river which still bears his name. Locrin's daughter Averne (or Sabre in Geoffrey) was drowned likewise, in the river which was consequently called Severn. The British king Bathulf (or, in Geoffrey, Bladud) was the builder of Bath; and the son of Bladud was Leir, who had three daughters, named Gornorille, Began, and Cordeille. Kymbel (in Geoffrey, Kymbelinus), who had been brought up by Augustus Caesar, was king of Britain at the time of the birth of Christ; his sons were Guider and Arvirag (Guiderius and Arviragus).

Another king of Britain was King Cole, who gave name (says Geoffrey falsely) to Colchester. We come into touch with authentic history with the reign of Vortigern, when Hengist and Horsa sailed over to Britain.

An extract from Robert of Gloucester is given in _Specimens of Early English_, Part II.

The other great work of the same date is the vast collection edited for the Early English Text Society by Dr Horstmann in 1887, ent.i.tled, _The Early South-English Legendary_, or Lives of Saints. It is extant in several MSS., of which the oldest (MS. Laud 108) originally contained 67 Lives; with an Appendix, in a later hand, containing two more. The eleventh Life is that of St Dunstan, which is printed in _Specimens of Early English_, Part II, from another MS.

Soon after the year 1300 the use of the Southern dialect becomes much less frequent, with the exception of such pieces as belong particularly to the county of Kent and will be considered by themselves. There are two immense ma.n.u.script collections of various poems, originally in various dialects, which are worth notice.

One of these is the Harleian MS. No. 2253, in the British Museum, the scribe of which has reduced everything into the South-Western dialect, though it is plain that, in many cases, it is not the dialect in which the pieces were originally composed; this famous ma.n.u.script belongs to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Many poems were printed from it, with the t.i.tle of _Altenglische Dichtungen_, by Dr K. Boddeker, in 1878. Another similar collection is contained in the Vernon MS. at Oxford, and belongs to the very end of the same century; the poems in it are all in a Southern dialect, which is that of the scribe. It contains, e.g., a copy of the earliest version of _Piers the Plowman_, which would have been far more valuable if the scribe had retained the spelling of his copy. This may help us to realise one of the great difficulties which beset the study of dialects, namely, that we usually find copies of old poems reduced to the scribe's _own_ dialect; and it may easily happen that such a copy varies considerably from the correct form.

It has already been shown that the rapid rise and spread of the Midland dialect during the fourteenth century practically put an end to the literary use of Northern not long after 1400, except in Scotland. It affected Southern in the same way, but at a somewhat earlier date; so that (even in Kent) it is very difficult to find a Southern work after 1350. There is, however, one remarkable exception in the case of a work which may be dated in 1387, written by John Trevisa. Trevisa (as the prefix Tre- suggests) was a native of Cornwall, but he resided chiefly in Gloucesters.h.i.+re, where he was vicar of Berkeley, and chaplain to Thomas Lord Berkeley. The work to which I here refer is known as his translation of Higden. Ralph Higden, a Benedictine monk in the Abbey of St Werburg at Chester, wrote in Latin a long history of the world in general, and of Britain in particular, with the t.i.tle of the _Polychronicon_, which achieved considerable popularity. The first book of this history contains 60 chapters, the first of which begins with P, the second with R, and so on. If all these initials are copied out in their actual order, we obtain a complete sentence, as follows:--"Presentem cronicam compilavit Frater Ranulphus Cestrensis monachus"; i.e. Brother Ralph, monk of Chester, compiled the present chronicle. I mention this curious device on the part of Higden because another similar acrostic occurs elsewhere. It so happens that Higden's _Polychronicon_ was continued, after his death, by John Malverne, who brought down the history to a later date, and included in it an account of a certain Thomas Usk, with whom he seems to have been acquainted. Now, in a lengthy prose work of about 1387, called _The Testament of Love_, I one day discovered that its author had adopted a similar device--no doubt imitating Higden--and had so arranged that the initial letters of his chapters should form a sentence, as follows:--"Margarete of virtw, have merci on Thsknvi." There is no difficulty about the expression "Margarete of virtw," because the treatise itself explains that it means Holy Church, but I could make nothing of _Thsknvi_, as the letters evidently require rearrangement. But Mr Henry Bradley, one of the editors of the _New English Dictionary_, discovered that the chapters near the end of the treatise are out of order; and when he had restored sense by putting them as they should be, the new reading of the last seven letters came out as "thin vsk," i.e. "thine Usk"; and the attribution of this treatise to Thomas Usk clears up every difficulty and fits in with all that John Malverne says. This, in fact, is the happy solution of the authors.h.i.+p of _The Testament of Love_, which was once attributed to Chaucer, though it is obviously not his at all.

But it is time to return to John Trevisa, Higden's translator. This long translation is all in the Southern dialect, originally that of Gloucesters.h.i.+re, though there are several MSS. that do not always agree. A fair copy of it, from a MS. in the library of St John's College, Cambridge, is given side by side with the original Latin in the edition already noticed. It is worth adding that Caxton printed Trevisa's version, altering the spelling to suit that of his own time, and giving several variations of reading.

Trevisa was also the author of some other works, of which the most important is his translation into English, from the original Latin, of _Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum_.

I am not aware of any important work in the Southern dialect later than these translations by Trevisa. But in quite modern times, an excellent example of it has appeared, viz. in the _Poems of Rural Life, in the Dorset Dialect_, by William Barnes.

CHAPTER VII

THE SOUTHERN DIALECT OF KENT

Though the Kentish dialect properly belongs to Southern English, from its position to the south of the Thames, yet it shows certain peculiarities which make it desirable to consider it apart from the rest.

In Beda's _Ecclesiastical History_, Bk I, ch. 15, he says of the Teutonic invaders: "Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany--Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West-Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight"; a remark which obviously implies the southern part of Hamps.h.i.+re. This suggests that the speech of Kent, from the very first, had peculiarities of its own. Dr Sweet, in his _Second Anglo-Saxon Reader, Archaic and Dialectal_, gives five very brief Kentish charters of the seventh and eighth centuries, but the texts are in Latin, and only the names of persons and places appear in Kentish forms. In the ninth century, however, there are seven Kentish charters, of a fuller description, from the year 805 to 837. In one of these, dated 835, a few lines occur that may be quoted:

Ic bidde and bebeode swaelc monn se thaet min lond hebbe thaet he aelce gere agefe them higum aet Folcanstane l. ambra maltes, and vi. ambra gruta, and iii. wega spices and ceses, and cccc. hlafa, and an hrithr, and vi. scep.... Thaem higum et Cristes cirican of thaem londe et Cealflocan: thaet is thonne thritig ombra alath, and threo hund hlafa, theara bith fiftig hwitehlafa, an weg spices and ceses, an ald hrithr, feower wedras, an suin oththe s.e.x wedras, s.e.x gosfuglas, ten hennfuglas, thritig teapera, gif hit wintres deg sie, sester fulne huniges, sester fulne butran, sester fulne saltes.

That is to say: